Who's ready for a Christmas-y cover reveal? It is Christmas in July, after all, and what could be better than an upcoming release from one of my favorite people in the world? Peggy Jaeger is part of the popular Dickens Holiday Romance series and she's sharing her beautiful cover with us. Isn't it gorgeous?
Title SASHA’S SECRET SANTA (A Dickens Holiday Romance: Dorrit’s Diner)
Author Peggy Jaeger
Genre Holiday romance, Later in life romance, small town romance, Series romance, Medical romance, PTSD, starting over, Family
Book Blurb
After a terrifying incident derails Sasha Charles’ career and her confidence, she moves back to her hometown of Dickens to heal, reorganize, and start over.
The only problem? The paralyzing panic attacks that plague her whenever she thinks about going back to nursing. Sasha is mentally, and emotionally stuck, and has no idea how to move forward.
Steve Caldwell is the new Director of Services at Dickens Memorial Hospital. After witnessing her save the life of a local resident in Dorrit’s Diner, he knows Sasha would be perfect for the new trauma center he’s planning. When she refuses his job offer outright, he sets out to change her mind.
But Sasha has thick, protective walls erected around her so Steve must first break through them. With patience and kindness, he does. As the two grow closer, each begin to have second thoughts on what their futures should look like, until idle, small town gossip threatens to derail their budding relationship.
With the imminent arrival of Christmas, will Steve be able to convince Sasha he has her best interests at heart?
Watch the book trailer
Excerpt
Sasha grinned. If she wasn’t mistaken, Matilda was going to help the gentleman to the tune of several hundred dollars in sales, judging by his statement.
Holding the carriage ornament and the diner one, she moved back to the register. Surprise galloped through her when she found Matilda’s customer was none other than the guy with the gorgeous eyes from the diner.
The bilateral lifting of his brows and the way his head leaned to one side as he regarded her through those stunning crystal blues, told her he was equally as surprised as she.
“Well, we meet again,” the man – had she ever heard his name? – said. “Save any lives today?”
“Not yet. But it’s still early,” she said, deadpan.
Goodness. How was it physically possible for that blue to burn even brighter when he smiled?
“Do you two know one another?” Matilda asked, glancing back and forth between them, a look of intense interest on her elderly face.
Instead of replying directly to her, the man crossed to where Sasha stood and offered his hand. “Steven Caldwell, Miss Charles.”
“You know my name?” she asked as she took his hand.
Years of training to remain calm in emergency, high emotion situations, was the only reason she didn’t gasp when their hands met. Heat like she’d never experienced before seeped through her palm, as if she’d been dropped headfirst into a bubbling hot tub. His hand, quite simply, engulfed hers with its size, breadth, and warmth.
One corner of his mouth pulled and twitched. “Just that. Oh, and Amy and Andy Charles are your parents.”
“I can’t image either one told you about me.”
“No. They’re very…protective. Especially your mother.”
“That would be our Amy,” Matilda piped up. “A mother lioness to the max. Well,” she sat back on her perch in front of the register. “You two browse. Let me know if you need any help, but this one,” she chucked her chin at Sasha as she addressed Caldwell, “learned to walk in this place. She can help you as well as I can.”
He nodded, then, turning to Sasha with a crooked grin, said, “I need all the help I can get.”
There was something so refreshing about a grown man asking for assistance. Most of the men she’d dealt with over the past decade—arrogant surgeons, supercilious residents, hospital administrators—wouldn’t have asked for help from a woman, but demanded it, expecting her to ask how high when they said jump.
“What are you looking for?” she asked.
His gaze ran around the width of the room as he let out a breath. “Everything. As I said, I have nothing.”
“Not even ornaments?”
He shook his head.
The natural inquisitor in her wanted to know why not, but she didn’t ask, thinking it too personal a question.
“Okay, well.” She glanced around the store. “I guess you should start with a tree and go from there.”
“I’ve actually got one on order from Gridley Tree Farm. They’re delivering it.”
“Oh, that’s good. They have the best selection in the area. How big is it?”
When he told her it was a seven-footer she was impressed.
“You’re gonna need a lot of decorations to trim it perfectly.”
His quick, open grin knocked her back a mental step or two. It had been a long, long time since she’d felt anything akin to attraction for a man. There was something in his open gaze, though, that called to her on a purely female level and surprised the heck out of her.
“We’d better get started then,” he said. “I’ve got a meeting at three I can’t be late for.”
Buy Links
NONE YET. The book will be released on 11.7.2022
Author Biography
Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer.
Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.
When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.
As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!"
Social Media links
Website: http://peggyjaeger.com/
Blog: http://peggyjaeger.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger
Pintrest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0
Authors database: https://authorsdb.com/community/15814-peggy-jaeger